Location: Otira

About this location

DescriptionOtira is a tiny hamlet nestled in the Arthurs Pass National Park. Otira is a small township seven kilometres north of Arthur's Pass in the central South Island of New Zealand. It is on the northern approach to the pass, a saddle between the Otira and Bealey Rivers high in the Southern Alps.

The population of Otira and its surrounds was 87 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 30 from 2001.[1] John Burns Gallery of Modern Art nestled in the Ōtira valley. The hotel was built in the 1860's, originally a stop on the Cobb and Co stagecoach from Canterbury to the West Coast.

The railway line was then built from Greymouth to Otira, with the pass navigated by coach, until the railway tunnel opened in 1923. In its heyday, during construction of the tunnel, Otira housed about 600 workers and their families. It was a railway settlement with drivers, guards, maintenance staff for the rolling stock and the staff houses. Engineers to service the steam locomotives which pulled trains between Otira and the coast. The electric locomotives pulled the trains through the tunnel.

In the 1950s the town had a population of about 350, but this had dropped to 11 in 1988 and recovered to some extent to 44 in 2010. The township is principally old Railways housing, much of which was constructed in Hamilton and shipped south to be reassembled on site. As well as the railway station, there is a pub, a fire station, and 18 houses, 14 of them tenanted in 2010.

On the 'town' side of Ōtira (as opposed to the village side) the old post office still stands as does the post masters house. The post office has been refurbished into an art gallery, 'John Burns Gallery of Modern Art'. The complex exhibits world class art which is a surprise to many visitors, housed as it is in the middle of the southern alps.

The town was sold in 1989 to private enterprise. In 2014 the hotel was sold and renamed The Otira Stage Coach Hotel.